About

I’m Steve Letkowski, a New Jersey consulting arborist and plant health care professional.  I help property owners, municipalities, and organizations make clear, defensible decisions about trees—balancing tree safety, tree health, and long-term stewardship.

Trees add value and meaning to our landscapes, but they also raise practical questions.  Is a tree safe?  Is it declining?  Can it be managed, or is removal the responsible choice?  Most real-world tree risk and management decisions sit somewhere between appreciation and responsibility.  That’s where my work tends to live.

I’ve worked with trees in backyards, streetscapes, forests, and utility corridors throughout New Jersey.  Over time, one thing becomes clear:  trees don’t succeed or fail in isolation.  Site conditions, soils, structure, species traits, past disturbance, and time all matter.  My approach to tree health assessment and tree risk evaluation accounts for that complexity rather than forcing simple answers where they don’t fit.

My background includes formal training in forest pathology, along with New Jersey Licensed Tree Expert status, ISA Certified Arborist credentials, and Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ).  Just as important, my work is field-driven byobserving, testing, monitoring, and revisiting trees to see how they actually respond, not just how they’re expected to respond.

Clients often tell me they appreciate the way I explain things.  I don’t sell fear, and I don’t offer false certainty.  Instead, I focus on likelihoods, tradeoffs, and clear reasoning so people can make informed choices, whether that means tree preservation, targeted management, or removal when risk is no longer reasonable.

Trees are long-lived organisms.  Decisions about them can have long consequences.  My goal is to help you understand your trees well enough to respect both their value and their limits.